IP News - Boost in Chinese Patents, Da Vinci Code Copyright Suit, DaimlerChrysler Split

According to a Economic Times' article, "China has received 268,926 patent applications in the first six months of this year [2007], up 7.3 per cent from the corresponding period last year." Patent applications in China exceeded three million at the end of June, 2006. China has received more than 4.98 million applications for registering trade marks at the end of 2006, with the number of registered trade marks exceeding 2.77 million.

Andrews Publications Staff Writer, Deborah Nathana, reported that a Federal judge granted a summary judgment against a Massachusetts writer who claimed that the 2003 blockbuster novel "The Da Vinci Code" infringed his book "The Vatican Boys." John Dunn was seeking more than $400 million in damages from "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown, publisher Random House and the three movie studios that distributed the 2006 film based on the worldwide bestseller. Full Story

Associated Press Writer, Davis Rising reported that DaimlerChrysler has gone through the formality of shedding "Chrysler" from its letterhead, as a final farewell to the money-losing American automaker it sold most of earlier this year [2007]. Full Story On a historical note, in 1885, Gottlieb Daimler (founder of Daimler) took Nicolaus Otto's internal combustion engine a step further and patented what is generally recognized as the prototype of the modern gas engine. Photo Credit: Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting, DaimlerChrysler AG, Berlin.

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